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ETHL

Edinburgh Theoretical Historical Linguistics

2025 Seminar

16-17 April, at the University of Edinburgh

Room G06, 50 George Square

Overview

ETHL is a venue for postgraduate students and early career researchers in Historical Linguistics to engage in theoretical discussion relevant to the issues addressed in this field. We aim to provide young researchers with a platform to discuss issues at the intersection of theoretical and historical linguistics, enabling historical linguists to explore the role of theory in their work and its relevance to synchronic theory. Furthermore, we hope to foster connections and create a community of theoretical historical linguists.

Norway

This year, ETHL will run on 16th and 17th of April in room G06, 50 George Square, in Edinburgh, with four discursive seminars providing insight into various aspects of theoretical historical linguistics led by Laura Grestenberger, Patrick Honeybone, Ranjan Sen, and George Walkden. The themes of the conference will then be brought together in a plenary talk by Theresa Biberauer. Check out the programme for ETHL 2025 Seminar.

What is ETHL?

ETHL, Edinburgh Theoretical Historical Linguistics, was conceived as a miniature summer school / socratic seminar with a focus on discussion between historical linguists interested in linguistic theory and theoretical linguistics with a penchant for diachrony. Although this event is aimed at postgraduate and early career researchers we welcome participation from anyone interested in historical and theoretical linguistics!

Over the two days we will have four two hour seminars each led by an expert in theoretical historical linguistics addressing a different aspect of the intersection of historical and theoretical linguistics. Although the specifics of these seminars will be determined by the leader they will follow the approximate structure of a lecture followed by an extended discussion session.

In addition to the seminars on each day of ETHL there will be a session of snap-talks where work can be presented.

Our sponsor institutions: ETHL 2025 Seminar is possible by the support of AMC (Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics), LAGB (postgraduate student committee), PhilSoc (Philological Society) and the PPLS (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh) through the Training and Development Grants Scheme, .

2025 Seminar registration

The registration process is now complete! See you on the 16th!

Registration will be free for members of the University of Edinburgh and £10 for everyone else. Conference dinner is £25.00 for external and UoE attendees.

Sessions

Laura Grestenberger 🔗

Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Iranian Studies

Patrick Honeybone 🔗

University of Edinburgh

Ranjan Sen 🔗

University of Sheffield

George Walkden 🔗

University of Konstanz

Plenary talk

Theresa Biberauer 🔗

University of Cambridge, Stellenbosch University

2025 Seminar — Programme

The venue for ETHL is Room G06 in 50 George Square, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. — Google Link

Wednesday, 16 April

  • 09:30–10:15: Registration and coffee
  • 09:15–10:30: Opening and welcome: Fae Hicks and Aldo Berríos Castillo
  • Session 1 10:30–12:30:
    What is the locus of linguistic change? Acquisitionism, lifespan-change and grammatical constraints on diachrony.
    Patrick Honeybone (University of Edinburgh)
  • 12:30–13:30: Lunch (BYOL to DSB.7.01 to eat together)
  • Session 2 13:30–15:30:
    Syntax or the lexicon? Pinpointing the locus of morphosyntactic change in voice and argument structure alternations
    Laura Grestenberger (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
  • 15:30–16:00: Coffee break
  • 16:00–17:15: Snap Student Talks
    • Finding Trees in Dialect Clusters – Brandon Kieffer (University of Edinburgh)
    • Variation and Distribution of Indo-European S-reflexives – Harry Cook (University of York) |
    • Toward a syntactic phylogeny of Semitic languages – Gaia Sorge (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
    • Development of preverbal negators in Portuguese-based creole in Jakarta (Tugu) – Farah Anindya Maharandi (University of Oxford)
    • Diachrony of Chinese Resultative Verbal Compound – Shangqi Lui (University of Oxford)
  • 17:15: Social at the Pear Tree
  • 19:00: Dinner at Namaste Kathmandu restaurant

Thursday, 17 April

  • Session 3 09:00–11:00:
    From phonetic cradle to lexical grave: demystifying the ‘pan-generational forces’ driving the life cycle of phonological change
    Ranjan Sen (University of Sheffield)
  • 11:00–11:30: Coffee break
  • Session 4 11:30–13:30:
    Realism and reconstruction
    George Walkden (University of Konstanz)
  • 13:30–14:30: Lunch (BYOL to DSB.7.01 to eat together)
  • Plenary talk 14:30–15:30:
    Language variation and change: a 21st century generative perspective
    Theresa Biberauer (University of Cambridge)
  • 15:30–16:00: Closing and feedback – Fae Hicks and Aldo Berríos Castillo
  • 16:00–17:00: Farewell coffee

Location

Room G06, 50 George Square, Edinburgh

What is a ‘snap-talk’?

The submission process for snap-talks in ETHL is currently closed. Thanks to those that submitted an abstract.

We envision a snap-talk to be a theoretical version of a poster. Since ETHL is just a two day event we had thought of including a poster session but posters are not exactly amenable to theoretical work so we have come up with the concept of a 'snap-talk' session.

Each snap-talk will be 10 minutes where you can present work at any stage of completion. The idea is that a snap-talk does not need to be as polished as standard talk and will provide an opportunity to share ideas and receive feedback on early stages of theoretical historical linguistic work.

Organisers

ETHL is organised by PhD researchers at the University of Edinburgh.
Contact the organisers by writing to: seminar [at] ethl [dot] uk

Fae Hicks 🔗

Historical Linguistics, grammatical development at the syntax phonology interface

Aldo Berríos Castillo 🔗

Historical Linguistics, phonology and morphology diachronic interaction, revitalisation of Mapudungun

Our sponsors

We thank the following institutions (in alphabetical order) for their invaluable support to the success of ETHL 2025 seminar.

AMC 🔗

Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics

LAGB (Postgraduate student committee) 🔗

Linguistics Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

PhilSoc 🔗

Philological Society

PPLS - UoE 🔗

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Training and Development Grants Scheme

Contact

Contact the organisers by writing to: seminar [at] ethl [dot] uk

Mailing List

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